Magic, Sheba, and The Transformers
by Shebakoby
Summary: A brief-yeah, right-explanation of why I think that adding Magic in some form to Transformers Fanfic is not without merit or precedent. Contains a Reader's Digest version of how I think Guardian Forces like Sheba came to be.


Many people are ambivalent about Magic, especially when used in the same sentence as "Transformers." I for one know a few people that totally disagree with any mention of Magic in the Transformers. I respectfully disagree, although I can see where they're coming from. I understand their objections. On that note, let me explain why I have chosen to add the element of Magic into the majority of my Transformers Fanfics.

It really all started with He-man and the Masters of the Universe. Back in those days I was an impressionable 10-year-old and I was amazed at the powers of He-man, as well as She-ra. Those powers, of course, were based upon Magic. When Transformers came out a year later, I began to see powers that looked to me almost like Magic. Take, for instance, Skywarp's Teleportation ability. The Sorceress used similar abilities—especially on He-man if he was in trouble. When I began playing Final Fantasy video games starting in 1989, I began to see that it was just like the Warp spell used by a Black Mage. I know of no scientific explanation that adequately deals with Teleport in a way that is satisfactory to me.

Or take Mirage's Invisibility. Sure, you could make the case that there's a scientific explanation akin to Star Trek's Klingon and Romulan Cloaking devices, but it also mimics the Vanish spell of Final Fantasy VI (III for SNES) and IX.

And let's not forget Elita 1's " _special power_." Stopping time is a very difficult proposition scientifically speaking. It made a lot more sense for me to explain it as a semi-magical ability, such as a variant of the Stop spell. And to free Prime from its effects, she could have cast the equivalent of the Dispel, Esuna, or Remedy spell. The fact that it drains her life force to use it also mimics something else from Final Fantasy; specifically, Final Fantasy IV (II for SNES). Tellah the Sage wanted to use Meteo on Golbez, but could not because he didn't have enough Magic Points. So, he converted his Hit Points into Magic Points in order for him to have enough to use the spell. Doing so kills him. Similarly, it appears that in order to use her special Power, Elita 1 must do the equivalent of changing HP into MP. Since the effect must be maintained, (not to mention the remedy/dispel effect on Prime) it drains constant MP away from her. And then she would have to let her HP be converted to MP, draining her life force. Makes sense to me. Also, Li Sho-ron on Cardcaptors once told Sakura that using the Time card drains a LOT of a Sorcerer's power. That is also consistent with what happened to Elita 1.

Even more fascinating in terms of a Transformer "special ability" is Megatron's spontaneous resurrection ability. The most blatant example of this is in part 3 of "The Ultimate Doom." **He somehow survives a blast** ** _that knocks Cybertron out of Earth's Orbit_**! Of all abilities, that is the one that to me screams "MAGIC!" above all else. Now what makes me say that? Well for instance, in both Final Fantasy VI and IX, there is a spell, that once cast, will enable a person who gets "killed" (or knocked out, if you prefer) to automatically revive. In FF VI it's called Life3 or Reraise, while in FF IX it's called "Auto-Life" which is a Blue Magic spell as well as an equipped Support Ability. Some will argue that Megatron is indestructible without going to any great lengths to explain why or how. To me, "Auto-Life" is just as good an explanation as any. In addition, he must have a means of restoring Hit Points without having to hit the repair bay. After the explosion of his shuttle in The Ultimate Doom Part 3, Megatron is obviously heavily damaged. However, when he returns to Decepticon Undersea Headquarters in the very next episode-Countdown To Extinction-there's not a scratch on him. In Magitek terms, this would mean longterm possession of the Phoenix magicite, who allows a person to learn Life3/Reraise as well as Cure3/Curaga.

But how is a person to explain how these powers came about, if they indeed were based on Magic? After all, aren't these Machines? Well I believe established Transformers canon is more than willing to back me up, at least, in some small way. Remember the episode _Madman's Paradise?_ (And yes, it's an episode most of us would sooner forget, ha, ha, ha.) In it they have a Quintesson that was banished for practicing sorcery. If you look closely at the Quintesson in the episode (when you can get a good look at him), you will see that he is the exact same type of Quintesson that are regarded as scientists. Examples of this are evidenced in such episodes as _The Killing Jar_ and _The Dweller in the Depths_. It is my theory that the self-styled "Red Wizard" was a scientist before he became a Sorcerer. It certainly fits his profile. And the type of Magic that is most likely to be discovered by a scientist is the Magitek power that is the focus of Final Fantasy VI. It is a power that fuses well with machines (hence the Magitek Armor in that game), and it is entirely plausible that a scientist would stumble upon some Magicite-solid, rocklike remains of magic-using creatures called Espers-and then unlock its powers upon experimenting with it. It is entirely possible that the Quintessons initially had no idea they were dealing with magical forces, and stumbled upon it quite by accident, believing their discovery to be a scientific one, at first. They would have simply detected large amounts of energy in Magicite and assumed it was a conventional power source.

Now, what sort of experiment would interest a Quintesson? Just about any kind you care to think of. But specifically, I have a theory on what they were trying to accomplish. Being as they are almost Ferengi-like in their pursuit of profit, it stands to reason that they would try to cut costs in any area they could. Slaves such as the ancestors of the Autobots and Decepticons require energy. They also require repairs and maintenance. Now imagine if there was a cheap—or even free—way to fuel or repair the slaves. In effect, make it so that the slaves never require refuelling or maintenance. That would be a pretty good racket right there. And the only way I can think of to do this (as I'm sure the Quintesson Sorcerer thought) is with Magitek power. A Cure spell works just as effectively as manual repair, and it's quicker and requires no labor. As for the energy requirements, it may be possible that the Red Wizard thought that the Magitek power itself was self-generating and could be converted to fuel. All that would need to be done then would be to infuse test specimens with Magicite somehow.

There is definitely a flaw in any sort of plan to create tireless slaves by Magitek. The energy of Magitek power is only self-generating when the person is at rest. It cannot be generated during periods of sustained activity. Slaves that need rest is certainly something the Quintessons did not have in mind—and it would merely replace one problem with another. On top of that, the slaves would start to manifest signs of unusual abilities. This probably may not have shown up right away. It would definitely start to appear as time went on-especially if said slaves were being used as Gladiators, since Magitek spells are learned by winning battles. Incidentally, I think that explains why Decepticons appear on the whole to have more individuals that exhibit special powers than the Autobots. Certainly, however, there is a chance that some Autobots were used as Gladiators and that they might have won some battles.

Now, I'm not saying that every Autobot or Decepticon has any sort of capacity for full-scale magic use. Magitek power does tend to weaken over long periods of time, and it can be inherited (in cases where inheritance would apply) or passed to another person. Most Transformers appear to not have nearly enough Magic Power or even Magic Points for that sort of thing. Maybe a few select ones do, but they would be in the minority. Other individuals would have to rely on Guardian Forces for any sort of Magical Ability (such as in Final Fantasy VIII). What we might consider magic is probably concentrated into one special ability in certain Transformers—abilities that probably use Magic Points. Notice that Skywarp doesn't teleport very often. Now that may be due to his lack of silicon "grey matter" but it's also possible that he only has a set amount of energy that he can devote to Teleporting, perhaps in the form of Magic Points. And also, why give an arguably dumb Decepticon such a powerful ability? It makes more sense to me that it came naturally through some kind of inheritance.

In _A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court_ , Starscream states, "Fool! Magic can NEVER defeat Science!" Notice that he did _NOT_ say that Magic wasn't for real. That to me indicates that while he acknowledges Magic, that he also knows that Transformers are not in general equipped to handle its usage, at least, not in any capacity that would gain them any real advantage. I mean, if Elita 1's "special power" will basically kill her if she uses it, how much more of a disadvantage would full-scale magic use be? Of course it would make sense to rely on scientific means of beating your opponent then. If from your perspective it is not feasible to even use Magic, no wonder you are going to assume that Science is superior. And of course Starscream assumed (incorrectly, of course, but how was he supposed to know) that all humans are under the exact same disadvantages.

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With the coming of Unicron in Transformers: The Movie, I saw the Monster Planet use powers that looked suspiciously like Magic. That was evidenced by the fact that Unicron reformatted the discarded Decepticons outside of himself, rather than drawing them inside and using some scientific manual way of changing them-at the very least, a stasis pod would have been in order if this was to be explained scientifically, in my humble opinion. Later on, after I had been playing Final Fantasy VII for a year or so, I noticed that Unicron's green "breath" attack looked similar to the coloring of the materia-based Ultima spell. "Oh look, Unicron's using Ultima Beam!"

And now we come to the basic reason why I feel Magic is a necessity in my fanfics. For the years that I watched Transformers, I empathized greatly with Starscream. In fact, I still do. I think most people knew that sooner or later something would happen to him. In my case I heard about Starscream's destruction long before I actually saw the Movie. It wasn't until 1988, while watching the "Puppetmaster Prime" Season 5 world broadcast premier of Transformers the Movie (in 5 parts) that I got to see what exactly transpired. But even before all that, I wished to prevent his death. The only way I saw to protect Starscream from Galvatron is to create a Transformer so powerful that even Galvatron (well, actually Megatron at the time) could not stand against. That's where Sheba comes in. If it weren't for her, I don't think I'd ever have bothered to conceive of Magic use in Transformers—at least, before the Final Fantasy video games came out.

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Sheba wasn't originally intended to be a Transformer. I had created her in 1983 as an "alter-ego" Original Character, complete with Magical Powers (akin to the powers of the Sorceress, Evil-Lyn, He-man, and all those). When Transformers first came out, I started to involve Sheba in some TF fanfic (which I didn't actually write down at the time), but not as a Transformer herself. I fully thrust her into the role of protecting Starscream. And since she was not yet a Transformer, her Magic powers were absolutely essential to enable her to adequately serve as a Guardian. However, by 1985, I felt so close to the Transformers on a very basic level that I needed to have my character become one of them, mostly in terms of acceptance by them. So, I gave her the ability to do a complete molecular conversion to a robotic body that can transform. And in addition, to give her a place in the Transformers Universe, in 1986-after the Quintessons were revealed-I theorized that Sheba's organic form was the result of experimentation on unfortunate slaves-Decepticons in this case, although there were Autobots that underwent the same treatment. The extent and nature of the experimentation evolved as I gained new insight and ideas after I played Final Fantasy III for SNES a few times (FF VI in Japan and for Playstation as FF Anthology). At last I had found a type of Magic that works with Machines. With actual names of spells in hand, I began creating fanfic in earnest. However I never actually wrote anything down until I was certain that Transformers as a cartoon was finished—which was in the fall of 1989, shortly after I had seen Transformers: The Movie for the fourth time. I then even began creating headcanon where Sheba interrupts Galvatron at the Coronation and rescues Starscream. However, that is not how it happens in my current fanfic—I allow canon to unfold at face value for the Movie and then work from behind the scenes.

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Although Sheba's job description has been basically a Guardian Force from the start, the idea came to full fruition after I saw how Guardian Forces are used in Final Fantasy VIII. Guardian Forces not only protect a person by taking damage in certain instances, they also enable the person they're junctioned with to use Magic and related abilities. With this in mind, it is possible that other Guardians exist for other Transformers. Take Megatron, for instance. If he himself does not possess the Auto-Resurrect ability, then someone must be casting it for him. Now, one can argue, where was this hypothetical Guardian when Unicron showed up, or when he and Prime fought, or any other situation? One can make a similar case about Starscream. There is an explanation—but it's complicated and is chronicled in detail in two of my fanfics: _The Big Capture of 1999/2006_ and _The Full Capture_. The short answer is, what met up with Unicron was actually a clone of Megatron, not the real thing, and Galvatron disintegrated a clone of Starscream.

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Another thing that can be taken into account, as far as Quintesson experimentation is concerned, are the ideas of how mutations were caused in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoons. Take a mutagenic formula, splash it on a victim, and watch them change. I think the Quintessons were a little ahead of their time. They may have been such "eager beaver" scientists that they got bored and were trying to come up with anything they could, just to say that they had done it. Now we all remember the Trans-Organics as described in _The Dweller in the Depths_. (For the record I don't believe the "Trans" prefix in "Trans-Organics" had anything whatsoever to do with Transformation.) So we _KNOW_ that the Quintessons had been monkeying around with Organics. Then they created the ancestors of the Transformers. I think they took things one step further and used existing slaves for experiments in molecular destabilization, mutation, and metamorphosis. They picked a consistent form that they could use best (my reasons for saying that they picked a winged feline form are numerous and thus a topic for another essay), and went to work. In doing so, they were able to create what could arguably be called-in my Fanfic Universe, anyway-the first true Transformers—because of their ability to change between organic and robotic forms. The Magitek energy may have been able to facilitate the transformation, but there's another angle to this Organic form versus Robot form business—it had been sitting in the back of my mind but it is akin to the powers of the Key to Vector Sigma. So then there could also be a semi-scientific explanation for Sheba's form as well as a Magical one. In any case I think it all resulted in a life form that was too powerful for even the Quintessons' Guardian Robots to control. I don't think they made very many of these new _Organic Transformers_ , and when they realized the mistake that had been made they immediately blamed Mara-Al-Utha. That is why I think they banished him. I don't believe for a minute that the Quintessons cared whether or not the Red Wizard was a Mage, as long as it benefited them. But if his creations and experiments were a large part of the reason that they all eventually had to flee Cybertron, then that seems like an offence far more worthy of banishment.

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I don't worry that these creatures that I think the Quintessons created are not in evidence, especially when considering episodes such as _Forever is a Long Time Coming_. (Interestingly enough, however, when I saw QuickSwitch's beast mode—a **_flying puma_** , of all things—I just about choked. That was a coincidence that was cool beyond belief.) If you'll recall, no Decepticons are in evidence either. Whether that is due to bias on the part of the writers, so they didn't want it to look like the Decepticons EVER did anything good, I am not certain—although it sure looks that way to me. Or perhaps they didn't show the Decepticons because the ones that were around at the time were being used as Gladiators or as guinea pigs, rather than as workers, and thus would be under much higher security than the Autobots. Also, the Organic flying puma Transformers might prefer being in organic form, and thus, Cybertron would be a less-than-ideal habitat for them, particularly after the energy depletion of the planet became a serious problem. Despite being mostly Decepticon, they are not evil, and because of their powers they are normally forbidden, or heavily discouraged-depending on the circumstances-from directly participating in the War, and most have no desire to, anyway.

And then there's the Hate Plague. It looked to me like a combination of a particular form of the status effect that is very similar to one caused by a spell in Final Fantasy VI called Entice-similar to Confusion or Charm, but hitting a person doesn't negate the Entice status like it would with Confuse-coupled with the Berserk status effect. This means that the Matrix, in order to cure this plague/status effect from the spores, would have to have the same properties as Remedy/Esuna, the status effect removing spells or items prevalent in Final Fantasy as a whole, and perhaps Dispel as well, which dissipates certain statuses not removed by Esuna/Remedy. Additionally, it could function like the Guardian Force ability Treatment, which removes all status effects, including ones that Esuna cannot. It also reminded me of Sailor Moon's Wand or Crystal Healing Activation/Power.

Now we get into how the Matrix was able to damage Unicron. Primus lore isn't in the G1 Cartoon, but it might make sense that the Matrix contains the Holy elemental and that Unicron is weak against it, whether or not he's a "dark god". Also, it seems its power CANNOT be used against the other faction, the Decepticons, which probably explains why Megatron wasn't worried about it when he did know about it in the Movie. It's probably an issue of balance but also a HUGE hint that the Decepticons and the Autobots really _shouldn't_ be fighting each other.

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In my fanfic I'm certainly not trying to completely turn the Transformers Universe into a "Swords and Sorcery"/D&D realm that leaves science totally out of the picture. Nor am I trying to turn _every_ Transformer into White Mage, Red Mage, Black Mage or what have you (although while we're on the subject of Final Fantasy style Job Classes, Galvatron would make an _EXCELLENT_ Berserker, LOL). I just happen to think that there are some things that are not easily explained on a scientific basis that have ready explanations in Magic. Obviously there is _some_ precedent for some reasonable amount of Magic in Transformers. And in the end, what I am doing is something that I enjoy—writing about Transformers. I am doing it in this way for my own satisfaction and enjoyment. If others like it too, that's a bonus. If people don't like it, that's fine, too. Live and let live, I say. Whatever turns your crank.


End file.
